


Unintended Consciousness

by IndigoNinja



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Annette is briefly here for plot reasons, Canon-Typical Violence, Genderless!Mr X, Implied Child Death, Leon swears a lot also oops he fell in love with a monster, Other, but don't worry the monster also fell in love with him, graphic depictions of gore, mute!Mr X
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-01 11:00:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18799018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IndigoNinja/pseuds/IndigoNinja
Summary: Who knew a missed shot could cause such a drastic change of heart?Leon already has enough to deal with, but gaining a new ally that was hellbent on killing him only a few hours ago? He already had a zombie apocalypse at hand, and Leon might as well take all the help he can get.





	1. Chapter 1

Leon Scott Kennedy was having the worst day of his life. Literally.

But he was surviving. He was making it work. At least he was able to see Claire’s friendly face again, and that other woman-- Ada-- who had helped him out against the dogs in the parking lot.

That, and the little spark of hope for escaping the RPD, waiting for him in one of the jail cells in the basement. He could escape the RPD, he could reunite with Claire, and help her find her brother.

Things were beginning to look good, despite all the zombies. At the very least it couldn’t get any worse, right?

Wrong.

So, _so fucking wrong._

With that creature he met in the basement under the Goddess Statue, at the very least, Leon only encountered it the one time. Lickers? He just had to tiptoe around them. With the zombies he could make sure to kneecap the bastards before moving on or shoving the end of his shotgun into their mouths if he had the ammo.

This? How the _fuck_ was he supposed to deal with _this?_

His brain couldn’t even fully register what was going on until that trench-coated bastard nearly swung into his face.

It didn’t take much time for him to realize that this thing was more dangerous than the zombies or lickers combined.

He was lucky to have the flash grenade on his person, dropping the bomb close to his feet before making a frantic dash around the thing, hearing the tell-tale bang from the grenade, and heavy footfalls slowing to a halt as the thing seemed to be stopped by his weapon.

It wouldn’t be long before he was able to encounter the thing again, and again, and again, and again.

It seemed unstoppable. At one point he was able to bring it to its knees, but even then that only seemed to piss it off. Or perhaps steel its resolve to come and kill him faster.

However, it was the most recent encounter Leon had with trenchy that threw him for a loop.

He was almost done with getting the parts needed to fix the old wire panel that seemed to control Ben’s cell, only to get trapped with a small hoard of zombies blocking his main path back to the ground floor. He had run out of room in his equipment bag to grab the huge gear he found in one of the other floors, and needed to drop his things in the box in the main hall.

Good thing he had plenty of ammunition for Matilda. It was almost all he had left.

He took his time at first, making shots towards their heads, one of them exploding into a spray of gore, and another falling down and unable to get back up.

He had run out of ammunition for his shotgun, and to not waste space, dropped it off at the main hall. Matilda was just a peashooter compared to his shotgun, but he was managing, and he had a couple of knives on him just in case.

But then big, loud, and stompy had to come at him from behind.

It seemed like a blur, but he was somehow able to dodge the thing’s right swing at him. The zombies weren’t as lucky, and Leon had to clench his jaw to keep him from puking again as he saw the tall thing turn the zombies on the floor into gorey paste.

He aimed the gun at the black-clad thing.

“S-stay back!”

It took a step, and in the light of his torch he was able to very briefly see in detail the features of what had been chasing him for the last two hours.

Its face was as if someone had pressed a thumbprint onto it, the skin a seemingly dead greyish color. The eyes of the thing had an intense, unyielding stare, irises seeming to be a near-white color. This effect only added to how spine-chillingly strong the gaze was, making the pupils look like tiny pin-pricks in a sea of white sclera.

Had he not known any better, Leon would have thought it was an alien of some kind. But it was not human. Or, if it had been one, it certainly wasn’t anymore.

“I’ll shoot!” He threatened, raising his joke of a gun and taking aim.

The thing took another step.

Leon had never squeezed the trigger so strongly in all his life, feeling as if he was going to break the gun as he shot the thing’s hat off, and then shot again, but barely missing it’s left temple.

Then the thing stopped dead in its tracks. Its white eyes seemingly vacant as it dropped to its knees, and the rest of its body falling to the floor in a massive, thunderous thud, kicking up dust and causing the floorboards to creak in response.

Leon, for all the training he did, was _trembling._

Did... did it die? _What the fuck happened?_

With slow, shaky steps, he approached the body, gently nudging the side of its bald head with his shoe. Nothing.

“God damn....” he breathed, lowering his gun, the light from his torch still trained on the seemingly dead form.

This was no time to stick around, he had to get to the clock tower and retrieve the other part for the wiring. Now was better than ever, especially since this thing was out of commission.

At least, he hoped so.

He had to get to the clock tower, remembering the note he found on the table near Ben’s cell. It talked about an extra part hidden up in there. He knew that the building was old, but _jeez_ , the least that could happen was an update of some sort.

_Too late for that,_ he mused.

This was no time to think about that, he had to get moving.

 

\--

Seek out survivors, witnesses, and the uninfected, dispose of them.

The order is clear cut. It was to be done with the highest level of efficiency, with as high a casualty count as possible.

There were to be no distractions. No detours.

Too bad it was dropped into a location that had a handful of survivors left. Originally it was to sweep the building, dispose of an informant, and proceed towards the NEST to recover any remaining G samples.

It had plenty of time to make a detour to follow around this obnoxious human. The situation wasn’t exactly in their favor, it was near-invincible compared to regular humans. It was even stronger against the zombies that lulled about, gurgling and shrieking occasionally as it swept through the halls of this building.

According to the information it had been fed before being dropped, this was a location called the Raccoon City Police Department. It had no human concept of what any of those words meant individually, just that they came together to name the building and general area of where it had been left at.

What a silly thing humans are, it thought. Especially that one human that had tried to fight it when it wrenched the tail end of the helicopter out of the way. It was in the way of them, and yet, despite all the odds against them, they still tried to fight.

How foolishly brave these things can be. It was almost amusing how strong their tenacity was.

Almost.

Still, that shouldn’t stop it from quashing down this human like all the others. Orders were orders, and it reveled in being outside of those sterile, white-tiled walls.

Except-- something extremely _odd_ happened.

It was the human again. Seemingly of average height and body size, albeit a bit young. It was curious to see that this human had held on this long, ducked and dived and dodged their way around it.

Perhaps that’s why they seemed to be aligned with the police here, or perhaps they were dropped here like it was? When it first saw their uniform it seemed to be clean and pristine, and shortly afterwards the garb was covered in grime. It guessed it was because of the fact that it had to knock away and dispose of the infected here.

It didn’t matter. If they died against the walking corpses, it wouldn’t mind, but at the same time would be a little disappointed. To die against something so seemingly silly like that?

It mulled over these thoughts, ducking through the all too short doors that this place had. At least the white walls of the place where it seemed to have been... born? Made? Whatever-- Those doors and halls of that place at least seemed to accommodate those that were like it.

_“Sunova bitch!”_

It’s eyes, seemingly unblinking, darted to the source of the curse. There was that human again, and it was taking what looked to be potshots at the infected. There were perhaps three or four still standing, with two on the ground, and one of them crawling slowly behind the still-standing infected.

With long, measured strides, it crossed the distance in the hall between the human and the infected. It charged with a wide swing of it’s right arm. The action elicited an alarmed ‘Jesus Christ!’ from the human, ducking down just in time from its attack.

The infected, however, weren’t so quick to react.

During the time it took to cross and meet the infected, the human had kneecapped one of them, forcing them to crawl with one leg, and the other two still standing infected were caught in the swing. They were clotheslined by the black-clad arm, carried into the left wall and crushed into a gorey mess with ease.

While the human had been trying to scurry away, it then proceeded to crush the other infected on the floor with a stomp that could crack panes of glass, turning the moving bodies into piles of bloody mush and clothes.

It then turned its attention to the human, who had a gun pointed at its head.

“S-stay back!”

It took a step. The human stood their ground.

“I’ll shoot!”

Another step, followed by an immensely loud gunshot. And another.

And then-- _nothing._


	2. Chapter 2

...

...

...

...What... happened?

That was the first thought to enter its mind. There was a dull sense of... urgency? Or was it something to do with the slight ringing in its ears? The strange feeling it was having on its left temple? It wasn’t sure.

Its eyes slowly adjusted to the dim, only to be greeted by dark halls, rather than the white tiles of the other place.

Something stirred within it, it was a sensation that it had never felt before. It reached into the depths of its brain to decipher what it was. Confusion? Panic? No... that wasn’t right.

It slowly rises from the floor, more fully taking in the surroundings. The stench of iron filled the air, rancid and harsh to its senses, but not unfamiliar to it. Turning behind it, it found the source of the stench, a red pile of mush, bone, and cloth was strewn around the floor.

It felt nothing looking at it, and yet something was stirring in the back of its mind.

Whatever. It needed to figure out what happened to it, where it was at, and why it was here in the first place. The first clue to its investigation was that it had awoken face-down on the floor, no recollection of whatever recent events might have brought it here in the first place.

Was it fighting? Did it get injured? No, it had been told it was indestructible. Nothing could really harm it.

And yet-- what had made it go down? It wanted to know.

It _needed_ to know.

Footsteps rung out in the halls, a floor above it. They were quick and paced, perhaps even panicked.

It turned, attention being drawn to the stairwell.

Well, it had to start _somewhere._ Perhaps whoever this was would know what was going on? It wondered this as it climbed the stairs, the floorboards creaking in agony under its weight, ducking down through an open door and entering a plastic-covered room.

Another door, and another duck through the frame, and it was in a large hall.

It must have been at the top floor, attention drawn down to the lights two stories down, their brightness not even enough to make it all the way up to the rafters of this gigantic, vaulted room.

At least it was large enough for it to stand at its full height, taking brisk, measured steps across the end of the hall, only to hear the gurgling and shrieking of... _something._

In the dim it could see the twitching form of something. It wasn’t whatever was walking earlier above it, their steps too erratic.

It became distracted when a thunderous clashing sound came from the end of the hall, it was barely able to tell what was being said on the other side.

_“...write a report on this.”_

Was this the person it had heard? Something stirred. There was a sense of familiarity in the voice.

Was that what it was feeling? Familiarity?

Just who was this?

As it approached closer and closer to the end of the walkway, the shambling thing to its left lurched towards it, attempting to bite through its clothes. It would fail, but it quickly was beginning to annoy it.

With a single swing of its left arm was able to knock the shambling thing over the railing and fall to the bottom floor, hitting the bottom with a wet, echoing _squelch_ as the body slapped into the concrete.

With... whatever that was taken care of. It waited at the door a few paces away, hearing more footsteps on the other side.

The door opened, revealing a human. Human.

_A living human_.

However, the sight of them cause it to flinch. What was going on with it? A human shouldn’t make it act like this, what was going on?

While it thought all these things, the human had turned away from closing the door behind them, only to yell in surprise.

“You again?” They said, drawing a weapon. “God _damn_ it trenchy, can’t you just stay down?!”

It stayed, seemingly frozen in place.

The human also seemed to be frozen, the two of them staring the other down.

It felt something contort in its throat, but something cause it to prevent any sound coming out, only a soft wheeze escaped from it as it tried to speak.

Right. _They_ took that away from it. A measure to prevent any of its kind to reveal their secrets if captured.

But it had other means of getting words across. Yes-- that’s right!

Would they understand? What would the human do, with that small piece of metal trained at its form.

Slowly, it raised its hands.

\--

What was it doing? _What the fuck was it doing?_

Leon thought he had killed it? Or at least knocked it out of commission for a long fucking time.

When he saw the thing raise its hands, Leon gripped Matilda, feeling like he was going to break the bones in his hand as he squeezed.

“Wh-- What are you doing?” He demanded, trying to keep his voice cracking from under the fear and stress.

With its right hand, trenchy pointed at Leon, then at itself. It then curled its hands into fists, raising them to its black-clad chest, twice tapping the right wrist over the left one, then pressing the curled fingers of the fists together. The movements were slow, mechanical, as if some sort of robot was making these moves.

Leon wasn’t sure what was going on.

“Are.. are you trying to talk to me?”

Trenchy blinked, raising its right hand close to its shoulder, curling it into a fist, and bent the hand down in time with its own curt nod.

Leon breathed a _holy shit_ under his breath. “Oh... okay.” He took a step forward, gun still raised in case it would try anything.

“I... don’t really know what you’re trying to say... Kinda wished you could have tried talking earlier.” Leon’s mind was racing as he said this.

Trenchy seemed to pause, and Leon tensed up.

For the briefest of moments, the rookie swore he saw a shadow of confusion pass its face.

It pointed it’s index and middle fingers out, tilting the hand towards its chest, flicking the wrist back and forth briefly. It then took both hands and curled all the fingers except its index one, pointing them towards the ceiling, the back of the left hand facing Leon’s direction, and the right being a distance away, close to its chest. Slowly, it brought the two hands together, the black material making a creaking sound as the hands made contact with one another. With it’s right hand opened and palm facing towards it, it made the motion as if it were tossing something behind it.

Leon didn’t have a clue what any of these motions and gestures meant. He simply stood there, brows knitted in confusion at the display.

“Could you just.. Talk? I don’t really understand whatever it is you’re trying to say--” Leon bit his lip mid-sentence when the trenchcoat quickly lifted its left hand, fingers apart in the number five, wiggling it as it shook its head.

It then took its right hand, balling it up into a fist, and pressed the fingers onto its mouth. It seemed to pause, the slightest twitch in its facial expression as it pulled its hand away. Trenchy then raised its hand again, its hand making an “OK” sign, touching one corner of its mouth, and tracing along to the other corner of its mouth.

“Your... lips are sealed?”

It shook its head.

“Uh... you... You just _can’t_ talk? Are you mute or something?”

A nod. It traced its hand across its collar-covered throat.

“Was your throat cut open or something?”

Another nod, it took its hands and curled them, pressing the sides together and then turning them away, as if to break something.

“Ah...” Replied Leon, his mouth pressing into a thin line. “Uh... I think I forgot something, just a moment?”

A nod, and Leon saw it make a gesture so fast he wasn’t sure what it did, but assumed it was an affirmation.

Leon had to hold himself back from slamming the door to the bell tower shut behind him.

“What the fuck am I doing?” He muttered to himself. Not even an hour ago that thing was chasing him around the RPD like a cat was chasing a poor mouse, and now he was suddenly just having a casual conversation with it?

Leon let himself slide down the door he was backed up to, making himself sit down with his knees drawn to his kevlar-wrapped chest.

What happened that made this trench-coated asshole make a 180 like that? Leon thought back to his last encounter with it, scratching his brain for details he may have missed in his panic, but nothing seemed to stand out.

It was especially puzzling, because he _knows_ he missed both shots! Sure, he got the bastard’s ugly hat off, but what made it so weird was the second shot. It barely grazed the side of its head, and yet that was what took it out? A friggin _missed bullet?_

No-- there was more to it than that.

And the answer to his questions was over eight feet tall, scary, and could potentially kill him at a moment’s notice.

Leon sucked in a deep breath to calm himself, this day was already so fucking weird, this might as well happen too, right? 

\--

It waited.

It wondered if the human had been able to understand what it was trying to say. There was a twinge of confusion about what they said earlier, about trying to talk earlier. Earlier? Had they met before? It was the same question it tried to ask the human, but it felt... frustrated that they didn’t know what it was trying to say.

Didn’t everyone understand sign? If this was the case, then why did _they_ give it this information?

That was a question to be shelved and answered later, it concluded. It needed to consider what was going on here and now.

It exhaled thoughtfully when the door to the clock tower opened, revealing the human that had been inside it.

_Finished?_ It signed, waving its open hands outward from itself.

The human stared at it for a moment.

“I don’t really know what that was for, but I’m done if you were wondering.” Pause. “Uh...”

_Your name?_ It asked, nodding its head towards the human while tapping the sides of its index and middle fingers together.

The human’s face seemed to squish in response, it guessed that this was their way of expressing confusion.

In response, it pointed at them, reaching their finger towards the kevlar wrapping their chest, and gave them a gentle tap.

The tap wasn’t as gentle as it could have tried, as the human stepped back either in response to the finger coming to proximity to their body, or the force of the tap itself.

“Me?” They asked. “What... about me?”

Frustration crossed its consciousness, how was it supposed to better convey its question?

“Do you... want to know my name? Is that it?”

Its eyes looked towards their face. It nodded, yes.

“O-oh! Then, then my name’s Leon.”

Leon.

It thought nothing of the name at first. Itself had no name, but the phrase _Tyrant_ came to mind. That word seemed to be more of a title, rather than a name, or perhaps even an identifier of some sort. It wasn’t Tyrant, it was _a_ Tyrant.

“Hey.” It’s thoughts were drawn back towards the human-- Leon. “Can you... get closer down to my height? I want to check something, please.”

_OK._ It signed, going down to one knee. It still was a good few inches taller than Leon, but was much better than having to stare down at them like it was a moment ago.

It watched Leon raise their hands, it took note of the fingerless gloves that they wore.

“I’m going to touch you now, okay? Uh, just tap my shoulder if you want me to stop.”

A nod.

It was like a child holding their parent’s face. Leon’s hands were so small compared to its face. But they were very gentle in tilting its head this way and that.

It noted that Leon took a good long while to look at the left side of its head, wondering if there was something wrong there.

White eyes glanced up to the other’s face, conveying an unspoken question towards Leon.

Leon stared back at it, and they made a small frown in thought.

“There’s... something sticking out of the side of your head. I think it’s broken.” Leon moved their right hand to its left temple, and it could feel small fingers tracing something that was round.

It leaned away from the touch, bringing up its own left hand to feel what was there to the best of its ability, as its hand was gloved in thick material.

But even through the glove it could feel something pointy sticking out and pressing at it. A sense of... panic stirred through its chest, its brain racking through its memories to think of what that was. Had it always been there? Was it the reason why it didn’t remember how it arrived here?

As it thought and wondered this things, it idly thumbed the thing in its head, only to cause it to tense up, feeling something course through its body just in time to pull away from the thing.

Leon backed up, pulling out a gun. “Woah--! Woah!”

It felt like every muscle in its body was turning against it, trying to be as still as possible while it let the feeling pass through. It left its body in a ridiculous pose, left hand curled into a tight fist next to its head, shoulder arched up, while it could feel its face tense and shift in a way it didn’t really know was possible.

What was this feeling?

“Jesus-- are you alright?”

It took every fiber of its being to untense itself. It forced itself to breathe, feeling its chest expand and retract with each breath it took.

That was... terrible. It didn’t like that _at all._

With a steady hand, it felt its face, trying to bring it back to the neutral position it was normally in.

“I guess that means you’re alright?” It heard Leon ask.

A nod, yes but...

“That looked really painful, probably a good idea to leave that thing alone huh?”

Painful? Was that _pain_ it felt?

A small chuff, perhaps.

“Uh.. I should get going. I’ve got to get back to the basement where y--” Leon silenced themselves.

It cocked its head slightly.

“Yoooouuuuu left something behind.” Leon finished. “I’ll bring it back, but you’ll need to stay up here, okay?”

A nod.

“But you _have_ to stay up here, the RPD is a huge place and I don’t think it’d be a good idea to wander around without knowing where stuff is.” Leon holstered the gun, which it only now realized was still drawn the entire time before.

Another nod. It will stay here. For now.

Leon turned, but before they could walk away completely, it reached out and grabbed their hand. This action caused Leon to yell in surprise.

“Hey-- What’re you--!”

It placed Leon’s hand on its face, feeling something-- Desire?-- to have it placed there.

The hand was small but warm, and it could feel the soft roughness of the leather against its face.

“Oh... you just.. Want me to touch your face?” Leon’s voice cracked slightly.

_Yes, please._

There was a few moments of silence, and it could feel Leon’s hand draw away for a moment, only to return and caress its cheek. It slowly closed its eyes in response, taking slow, calm breaths, feeling the thumps in its chest slow slightly in response.

If it could, it would hum to the pleasantness of the feeling.

“I really need to get going now, okay?”

A nod, and it stood up, with Leon’s hand dropping away from it.

It watched as Leon crossed the other side of the walkway across the large expanse of the room.

They looked back at it as they approached the door. “I’ll be back.”

Leon then disappeared through the doorway.

\--

Leon could feel his heart _thundering_ in his ears. He wasn’t sure if it was from excitement, fear, or something else, but that entire interaction with Trenchy was so, so _weird._

It still threw him for a loop at the fact that not only did it have some sort of _machine_ in its head, but the fact that it _grabbed his hand_ and then _put it on its face for him to touch_.

At least it didn’t crush his hand. Or did anything else.

As Leon made his way down to the first floor, his mind wandered back to the whole situation of touching its face. It was... somewhat cold against his own hand. He wondered if it was because its head was the only exposed part of its body, or that Leon himself was just so warm from running around the entire RPD for the last however many hours he had been here for.

Or-- was that just an indication of its inhumanness?

An ear-piercing shriek rattled through his senses, snatching Leon away from his thoughts.

Whipping out Matilda, Leon took a moment to aim at the zombie that was half-run-shambling towards him, squeezing the trigger, and tensed as he saw the zombie’s head explode into a spray of blood and gore. A shiver went through him, he wasn’t used to seeing that still.

Checking his surroundings, and pulling out the scribbles that could hardly be called maps out of his pocket, it seemed that he found himself back in the East side of the building. Right, it was around where he had to blow up part of the building to get at the last medallion for the Goddess Statue... then that meant he was at a door that was locked from the other side...

“There.” He muttered, turning the lock to the door and opening it with ease as he was presented the room once more.

Leon now only needed to wind his way through the hall and back down to the bottom floor-- so long as there weren’t any lickers or zombies blocking his way.

At least he didn’t have to worry about Trenchy following him again.

Did that thing even have a name? Was it even appropriate for him to call it “Trenchy” in the first place? He wondered about these things to himself, entering the seemingly only brightly-lit place in the entire RPD.

Leon lifted the trunk, finding the shotgun inside, in his journey to and from the bell tower, he was able to find a few shells, barely enough to fully fill the thing up, but at least he had an option other than Matilda to defend himself with. He then grabbed a flashbang and extra knife, the current one in his possession already feeling loose in the grip. He guessed that there were maybe one or two more uses out this one left.

Better safe than sorry.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, the rookie looked up into the rafters of the main hall, wondering if Trenchy was watching him from the top floor. If it was, Leon couldn’t tell, the lights to the main hall were well-lit, but not bright enough to reach the top of the vaulted room.

However, he swore he could see a human-shaped figure in the shadows above.

Leon wondered what it could be thinking as he made his way back to the East hall, careful to be quiet in case there were still any zombies left standing, or even a licker waiting for him around a corner. Was it confused? Angry? Did it even feel anything?

And what was with all the gesturing? It made Leon think back to some of the press conferences he would watch on TV, an announcer was there, and, usually a woman, would be there to move her hands in a nearly blinding speed. He had guessed that she was some sort of interpreter, but for what language?

He pushed the thoughts away from his mind as he approached the door to the parking garage, going into full attention as he pushed the door halfway open, listening for any of those zombie dogs. _Why_ did it have to be dogs? Why couldn’t it just be something else like, _rats_ or something else small that could hardly do any damage?

Well-- not rats, those things as zombies could just swarm a person.

He trembled at the thought, _eugh._

Leon could hear distant barking coming from the kennel as he made his way towards the jail cells, he continued to tremble slightly, shutting the door behind him in the entryway.

_Deep breaths, Kennedy_ . He told himself. _You got this._

Once calmed, the rookie made his way through the jail, the zombies kept safely behind bars, only to be ignored as Leon jogged through the corridor, finally reaching the end at Ben’s cell.

As Leon opened the boxed parts, giving each one a quick examination before pressing them into the electrical panel, his mind wandered to when he saw Ben’s head get crushed. How it was just so mercilessly destroyed before dropping the body like a limp doll.

He thought about the large, black-clad hand that, _literally,_ squeezed the life out of Ben.

His eyes darted over to the cell on his left, tracing the hole in the cement wall, stopping at the end where the drying spatter of blood was at. Leon had to strongly resist the urge to see the twisted face that sat beneath it, not wanting to warrant him to dry heave at the sight.

With a deep breath, Leon turned his full attention to the panel.

\--

It watched from the edge of the railing, eyes trained on the now tiny form that was Leon. Watching until it disappeared into the Eastern side of the hall.

It was here that it decided to follow the human, it had a... _feeling_ that something might happen to them. It wasn’t sure why it felt this way, it never really felt _anything_. It felt no pain or pleasure, let alone... emotions?

Is that what it was feeling? This was an entirely new concept to it. It understood that it was sort of... _brought to be_ , rather than whatever it was that things like it normally came to be. Could the human, Leon, understand some of its thoughts if it tried to tell them?

It slowed mid-step down the stairs at the second floor.

Maybe not?

Maybe this would be a learning opportunity for it, especially for the situation it was left in, it needed to understand as much as it could.

It began to walk again, this time at a less-hurried pace than it had a moment ago.

There were too many questions asked, with too little answers. Leon _knew_ something it didn’t, they acted like they had seen it before.

... Could Leon be the reason why it was missing such a large chunk of its memory?

It didn’t have time to think more on it, entering the second floor walkway in the main hallway, only to get clotheslined by something large and black, feeling its neck get crushed under an extraordinarily powerful grip.

It struggled to breathe as it recognized the other, a near-perfect mirror of itself. _Another Tyrant._

The other still had its hat on, the brim shadowing its vacant, rage-filled eyes at itself. The thuddings in its chest seemed to speed up in a frantic attempt to get blood into its brain, adrenaline coursing through as it was able to wrap its arms around the intrusive hand at its throat, wringing the shoulder of the other Tyrant until an audible _crack_ echoed through the hall.

It felt the hand at its throat release its grip, turning limp as the arm fell idly to the side of the other.

_Why are you doing this?_ It signed, watching the other push its dislocated shoulder back into place, creating another sick cracking sound as the joint went back into place.

The other Tyrant stared at it, eyes glancing down to its hands.

_Orders. Told dead. Sent here._ It replied, the signs it made less fluid than its own, mechanical in nature. _Finish where failed. Saw you, told to kill, followed._

It tensed up at the response, giving the other Tyrant enough time to close in on its neck again, this time with both hands, slamming its body face-down into the marble flooring.

It felt like crumpling as it was manhandled to have both its arms behind its back, gripping the back of its head and slamming it face-first into the yellow-tan marble. It saw stars dances across its vision with each skull-shattering hit into the ground.

In the brief moments it had before darkness took over, the echoes of an alarm went off through the building. It knew the other Tyrant heard it too, pausing before giving it one last mush into the floor before getting up from its target, going after easier, more interesting prey.

It saw, smelled, and tasted red. It knew its nose was most likely ruined, but at the very least its sockets didn’t fracture. However, the trauma to its head refused for it to get back up at any capacity, leaving it disoriented, falling down before consciousness finally left it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I decided that the Tyrants would know sign language. Though its all mostly in a literal sense since they only know the signs but none of the facial grammar when it comes to doing proper, fluent ASL. (Fun fact: no facial expressions when performing signs is the same as speaking in a monotonous voice when speaking!)
> 
> Also, I've really just been enjoying writing out sign, since it helps me personally practice it while writing.
> 
> Also-- Thanks so much for the comments! I've been reading them and I'm very excited to see what everyone thinks so far of my writing! Not gonna lie, it's my first fic that I've written in about six or so years, so I'm very glad that everyone is so far enjoying my writing :D


	3. Chapter 3

_Tyrant._

The word went through Leon’s mind as he read the note left behind by Ben, stuffing the piece of paper into his pants pocket as he approached the mentioned corpse, wincing, and feeling bile build up as he looked down to grab the parking pass, only for his eye to catch the attention of something attached to the belt.

At closer inspection, it was a tape recorder, real compact, too. He assumed that this had something to do with whatever investigation that Ada had here. He unclipped the recorder, pressing play, and listening to what was kept inside.

...

“Lab..?” He muttered to himself, quieting down as the rest of the tape played out, scoffing at Ben calling the woman on the tape a bitch.

Leon stood, quickly turning away from the corpse as he pocketed both the tape and the pass, drawing out the shotgun at his side, making a beeline towards the garage.

Suddenly, a thunderous rattling sound echoed through the basement, causing the alarm to go off, arousing the zombies that were asleep in their cells to look for any form of living flesh.

It just so happened that Leon was the closest form of living flesh, the corpses ambling over towards him, each drowning the other out in their shrieks, gurgles, and moans.

He dashed over to the main hall entrance he had used to get to Ben’s cell, only to see that there was a flood of zombies blocking his way. Leon’s head whipped to the left, seeing a lever, and yanked it down, relief washing over him as he saw the gate swing open in response.

He began to run through, only to hear the loud, telltale sounds of footsteps, soon followed by the sight of trenchy who--

_How did it get its hat back?_

Nevermind that-- _it was charging right at him_.

“Give me a fucking _break!”_ He yelled, waiting for it to approach him with its usual right swing, ducking down beneath it and making a break for the exit of the jail cells.

He could see the other end of the parking lot, now swarming with more zombie dogs that Leon guessed escaped from the kennels. He took aim at their dashing forms, only for the wall to seemingly, literally, explode, revealing the Tyrant, now hatless because of the wall it seemed to walk through.

Leon was stunned into stopping, which gave it enough time to grab him by his neck, and lift him a few feet off the ground.

Leon could feel the fear rise up through his body, struggling to breathe as he could feel the hand closing tighter and tighter around his neck, spots of light crossing his vision as he could feel the oxygen struggle to get to his head. He could feel his heart trying to catch up to the lack of blood going to his head, tears welling up in his eyes.

This was it. This was the end. The end, the end, _the--_

The sound of a car revving filled the air of the parking garage, the headlights flaring to life and casting their white light onto the Tyrant holding Leon in its grasp, turning its face from grim to simply _ghastly_.

In that moment, Leon was able to see all the details of its face, and a single thought cross his mind as the squealing of rubber on concrete filled his ears:

_That wasn’t his Tyrant._

The car surged forward, making a beeline for the monster, tossing Leon aside in an attempt to brace itself for the oncoming impact, only for the force of the vehicle to smash its body into the wall with the force of-- well, _a truck._ More of the wall crumbled in response.

Leon struggled to breathe, choking on his own breath and coughing hoarsely, hearing a door open and slam shut, followed by the clacking of high heels.

Ada.

He was offered no help as the rookie pushed himself up on his knees, slowly rising to his knees so that he wouldn’t get dizzy from the rush of blood now coming back to his head.

“This is getting old.” Ada turned her head towards him, her sunglasses refusing to betray any emotion she might have had. “That’s twice now I’ve had to save your ass.”

Leon shuddered a cough. “Thanks but-- I didn’t realize we were keeping score.”

Ada turned around fully, seemingly annoyed.

Leon was ready to argue with the agent, only for the groan and creaking of metal and brick to alert both of them to the Tyrant that had been embedded into the wall. It was trying to push the SWAT car out of the way.

Ada sighed in annoyance. “Nothing ever _dies_ down here.” Followed by an explosion from the car. Leon was able to see in time the woman toss down a small device to the floor, apparently now useless. Her attention then turned to him. “Do you have the keycard?”

He was quiet for a moment before replying. “Uh-- Yeah. Found something else too.” He pulled out the recorder, tossing it to Ada. “Think it’ll help?”

She tilted her head at the device that landed in her hands, then back to Leon. “Maybe, once I listen to it.”

Leon fidgeted a little bit, finally realizing that the thudding in his head was from him being choked out less than five minutes ago. Mostly from that and his heart still thumping in his ears as he walked towards the machine at the garage’s entrance. His neck ached as well, and would be surprised if that Tyrant didn’t somehow dislocate something in there.

He felt like he was dragging his feet along the concrete, his mind racing at the hurricane of events that just happened. He thought about the Tyrant that tried to kill him, noting that the weird piece sticking out of its left temple was whole and undamaged.

The first question to pop into his head was _what happened to Trenchy?_ Did that other Tyrant do something to it?

Leon stopped a few paces away from the machine.

... Why was he worrying about it? It wasn’t like it was a _person_ but...

“What’s taking you?” Ada called out, annoyed, and interrupting Leon’s train of thought.

“Sorry it’s just I--” His words were caught up in his throat. “... I had to leave someone behind. I should.. Make sure they’re all right.”

Ada stayed quiet for a moment.

“Would you want me to come with you, so I can save your hide for a third time tonight?”

Leon tensed at the offer. How would the agent react to when she sees that he’s somehow gotten a fucking _Tyrant_ on his side? How would Trenchy even react to him bringing another human survivor to it?

... He _really_ had to stop calling it that.

“Thanks for the offer but I think I’ll be fine. They’re... not far from here, and I only need check in with them.”

Ada stayed quiet. _God_ Leon wished he could get rid of those sunglasses to try and tell what she might be thinking.

“I’ll be right back. Promise.”

“... Alright. I’ll be here, just don’t take too long.”

“Copy.”

Leon turned to his right, making a brisk pace through the basement hall and through the stairwell. He passed the breakroom and made his way past the watchman’s room, finally entering the East hall a few moments later.

It was eerily quiet. Save for the gurgling sounds of the overflowing toilet in the bathroom.

The rookie steeled himself, and continued on his way through the dim. He could see that some new bodies had appeared here, wondering if it was the work of the Tyrant the had choked him out earlier.

Leon paused as he approached the shutter to the main hall, not out of hesitation, but he swore he could hear something in the corridor behind him.

He quickly passed it off as another zombie, entering the brightly-lit main hall for the umpteenth time tonight.

"Hello?" He called out, his voice echoing in the room. "I-- I came back."

He felt so stupid. Why did he think it was a good idea to come back? He could have already been leaving with Ada right now, instead he backtracked all the way here to check in on a killing machine.

_Stupid Leon._

A floor above him, he heard something moving, only for a soft thud to follow. He felt anxiety rise through his chest, unsure of what was there just above him. Was that his Tyrant?

"H- hang on, I'll be right there."

Leon made a brisk pace up towards the Goddess Statue, passing the bronze Lion and turning right, only to see a black lump on the ground ahead.

He felt his blood run cold at the sight of it. Not out of fear, but of a deep concern.

Leon practically sprinted up to the form, watching it rise again only to collapse on itself, unable to get up.

It seemed to respond to his presence on his arrival to the body, further struggling.

"Hey-- stop, _stop._ " He said, slinging his shotgun to his back and placing a hand on its back. His eyes drifted to the floor, the marble tinted red with blood, seeping into hairline cracks.

Leon looked over towards Trench-- the Tyrant, and could finally see it's face.

He could see that it's eyes were unfocused, its nose looking a little crooked since he last saw it. Drying blood was streaming down from its nose, covering its mouth and chin in red.

Leon wondered what happened to have left it in a heap like this, as it took an arm into the floor to raise itself again, finally able to keep steady. It turned its head towards him, and Leon felt his breath catch as he could see it making an expression of... relief?

It was _relieved_ to see him?

Leon felt it's right arm move, the hand trembling as it touched it's fingers to its chin, bringing the hand away.

Leon had to chuckle a tiny bit at the display. "I don't understand yet, but you're welcome. Here--" He raised the arm over and behind his shoulders, trying to carry the large, heavy limb. "I'll try to hold you steady. You'll need to take it slow, though."

The two of them stood in unison, with the Tyrant taking hold of the wooden railing, creaking in protest under its weight. Leon braced for the same thing to happen, taking some steps backwards to help turn the Tyrant around.

But the weight didn’t come.

He saw that it was still holding onto the railing, somehow still able to take all of its weight, eventually moving to the pillars as they continued down towards the stairs. Eventually, its hand going for the wall, at times pressing its whole body against it as it seemed to fall over.

Leon still held onto the arm as best he could, and could feel the hand he was carrying grab onto his right shoulder, gripping firmly, but not to the point of accidentally hurting him. He wondered if it was using him to ground itself somehow, feeling its body tilt forward as they approached the shutter to the East hall.

“Hang on.” Leon paused, taking a step forward through the entrance. He strained to hear anything, only for that overflowing toilet to be burbling up water further down the hall to make any noise.

He motioned the giant to follow, holding onto it's hand as it made a slow effort to pass through the shutter, soon making their way through the east hall.

"I know a safe room, we can stay there for a bit."

Still walking, he wondered what the other was thinking. It was hard to tell with how stony faced it was, even with some of the stuff he was taught as a child to pay attention to. Leon always felt frustrated dealing with those kinds of people, unreadable faces and hard, stern looks.

But... this thing wasn't exactly _people_ , and yet it... acted very human somehow.

His thoughts were drawn back to the encounter from earlier, the weird broken piece in Trenchy's head versus the one that had choked him out on the parking garage. The one in grabby's head was undamaged, it was also a seemingly unfeeling killing machine, absolutely ready to snap his head from his body.

They soon approached the watchman office. It was a slow effort to have Trenchy go through both the door and shutter leading to the next hall.

"We're almost there." Assured Leon. He felt a firm squeeze on his shoulder in response.

That was... such a very _human_ response _._

His thoughts wondered more to the device in its head. There was something about it that was making it act differently compared to the other Tyrant. Was it because it was broken?

Was it because of his missed shot from earlier, that Leon cause it to turn... _good?_

... Was that even of itself a good thing in the first place? He wasn’t sure, all he could do was work with what he had available, even if it came in the form of... this.

At least it wasn’t trying to actively kill him. He even sort of appreciated having the large thing as a sort of companion in arms.

Leon still had a lot of questions, but he’d have to save them for later, especially since he still couldn’t fully understand what it tried to say at times. He’d just have to be patient. Only for a little longer, hopefully.

\--

Its head was spinning as they made it to what it hoped was the last door.

It could feel Leon stop, and it stopped in response.

"I'll get the door, wait there."

It stood there, trying it's best to watch Leon open the dull green entrance, disappearing inside and then reappearing a moment later with a chair, propping the door ajar with it.

"There we go. C'mon, easy now."

Slowly, it felt for the door frame, it's only anchor from standing to falling again. Leaning over...

... Only to slump to the floor, seemingly exhausted.

It knew it was deemed to be better than humans in nearly every way, it was able to recover from things that would normally kill a regular person, or perhaps even permanently disfigure them. However, even though it survived the encounter with the other Tyrant, it would take a little bit of time for it to fully recover.

Even it had its own limits.

_“Shit.”_

Soon enough it felt like is was being pulled along the ground, if only a little. It was huge and its weight was a lot for only one human to handle.

_“C’mon_ , please... just a little further.”

It listened to this words of encouragement from Leon, standing up with a burst of strength, and almost collapsing into the corner of the room left of the door. Only its shoulder had been propped up by the wall, leaving it in a near-laying down position on the floor.

It was well-lit in here, not as bright as the main hall, but enough that the room gave off a sort of homely feel with its warm yellow light. It could even recognize some of the items that decorated the space. Chairs, table, and a kitchenette with cabinets. To its left there was a doorless opening, showing a small sink and mirror which Leon was standing in front of.

It watched as he opened the mirror, revealing a cabinet, it was empty, and it could hear the human make a frustrated sound, disappearing behind the wall. He returned to the front of the sink, and it could hear the squeak of a faucet and running water.

With a sigh it closed its eyes, a gloved hand going up to its face to touch its forehead and nose. It couldn’t feel anything off with its head, relieved that the other Tyrant didn’t crack its skull.

Its nose on the other hand, was completely busted, and had healed in the wrong way. There was nothing it could do, at the very least it could still breathe through it, although it could guess that it now gave it a more unique look.

Leon then came into its view, a small towel in hand.

“There’s no more medicine-- don’t even know if you’d need it-- but at the very least I gotta clean up your face. Make you look less like the things outside.”

Leon had to kneel down to reach its face, silently watching him pass the warm cloth across its mouth and nose, pulling away with more and more red with each pass. It could feel the bits and pieces of bone that didn’t reconnect to its skull move around, making an odd sensation. The feeling wasn’t bad, but it didn’t wholly like it either.

As Leon continued to clean it up, it was able to get a look at the other’s neck. It felt the corners of its mouth twitch downward as it noticed the reddish-purple mottles along his neck.

It raised its left hand, causing Leon to pause, probably wondering what it was doing, only to back away a few steps as it brushed its hand against his chin. Leon put his own free hand to his neck, now visibly trembling.

_I’m sorry--_ It signed, leaning up and making small circles with its right hand over the middle of its chest. It curled its hands except for the index fingers, the palms facing towards it, and turning the hands towards the middle space between them.

_What happened?_

Leon was silent for a long time, hand still on his neck, gently touching the area as if it was still tender. His face was stern.

“I... I met one of your ‘friends.’” He started, voice trembling slightly. “In the basement, it had me and--” A shaky breath passed through him. “It doesn’t matter now, its dead.”

Pause.

“I hope.”

Friends? Was he talking about the other Tyrant from earlier? It... _it got to Leon?_

Something... hot and jagged flowed through its chest. It felt its body tense to the new feeling, quickly able to recognize it as something it felt all too often before.

_Anger._

It looked at Leon, who had taken the time to sit down in one of the chairs, perhaps no longer inclined to help clean it up after it tried to touch him. It felt a tightness in its chest at this.

Leon rubbed his hands into his face, sighing loudly.

“Sorry it’s just-- I’m still thinking about what happened. I could have died back there, but I was lucky and I got help.” A hand went back to his throat, staring at it. “Was.. was that why I found you like that back there?”

A nod.

_“Jesus...”_ Leon breathed.

He was silent for a long time after that, his hands holding his face.

It took its time to think what to do next.

With a great effort, it made itself stand and take a step towards Leon. It kneeled before him, seemingly surprising the human, noticing that Leon’s eyes looked more watery than usual.

“Sorry I--” He staggered a breath, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. “It’s been a horrible day for me.”

It simply blinked in response, taking a large gloved hand and gently brushing it against the side of Leon’s face. It could feel him tense up under the touch. It made sure to be as slow and gentle as possible, gently brushing the back of its hand against the others cheek, not entirely unlike the way Leon had touched its own face earlier.

Leon seemed to understand what it was trying to do, softly sighing, his features softening as he closed his eyes against the touch. He even went as far as reaching a hand up to its own larger one, almost holding it.

Something warmed in its chest at the sight, its breath catching for a moment.

Leon opened his eyes, giving it a quizzical look.

“Is there something wrong?” He asked.

It looked away, drawing its hand away from him. It didn’t know, it hadn’t felt something like this before. All the information that _they_ could have given it-- and they forgot to give it an idea of what it might be like to be...

Human.

Something cool and wet pressed against its mouth. It looked to see that Leon had gone back to wiping away the blood on its face.

That warm feeling from before seemed to grow in its chest. It felt its face tense slightly at it. The feeling wasn’t... bad. But it wasn’t sure if it was good, either. It still didn’t have a full idea or concept between what it was feeling.

It wasn’t even until recently that it had an idea of what was... outside. Outside of those walls that it was so used to seeing. Those forms that would seem to blur by it, all the poking and prodding and fighting and--

“There. Done.”

Leon’s voice seemed to echo though its head, bringing it back from its thoughts. The warm feeling returned to its body at the sight of the other.

What was this... _thing_ it felt when it looked at him?

It had no idea.

It... felt like it had to act on it somehow, in some way, to show that it appreciated Leon. So it did something that it had only seen once.

It embraced him.

\--

Leon could feel his blood turn at the sudden embrace from Trenchy. He wasn’t entirely sure what to think or feel about the sudden contact from it. He had been stunned into stillness.

But the action also brought up a whirlwind of thoughts and fears. What was it trying to convey? Did it...?

Leon’s heart lurched at the thought, anxiety rising in his chest soon after.

God this night couldn’t get any weirder.

He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but all that came out was the sound of his own breathing, slightly uneven because of his anxiety at the situation.

It seemed to respond to the change, slowly releasing Leon from its embrace. It was here that he realized that the hug was neither crushingly strong or light. It was a firm, comforting embrace.

Leon internally refused to look up at its face, certain that it was staying at him with its strangely white eyes. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to look at it in the eye, not because the gaze was so strong, but because Leon was certain that he would simply embarrass himself in front of this large... person.

It was a _person,_ he realized.

“I...” Leon uttered, not even really realizing that he was talking. “I’m at a loss.”

He could feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. This day was just simply horrible, and he had finally reached his emotional limit in the hands of... this person. This Tyrant.

He felt its arms wrap around him again, not even resisting as he could feel himself being lifted up, soon to be placed back down, resting in the well of where its legs were crossed.

Leon laid limply, head resting on its chest, body being kept close with a single arm as he could feel his face being touched with an incredible level of tenderness. His mind simply stayed empty of thought, even with all of these new actions that Trenchy was now doing to him.

In truth, he deeply appreciated all of it. If only he could properly voice his thanks to it, his words failing him at the worst possible time.

He felt its hand trace along his jaw and neck, almost as if it was trying to apologize about what happened earlier, every touch barely touching Leon’s skin.

“It’s... it’s okay.” He breathed. “I’m okay.”

The last words were meant more for himself, but he still couldn’t resist to look up at it, soft blue eyes making contact with intense white ones.

It held no expression, yet Leon could see that there was something going on behind its eyes. He wondered if it was thinking about the situation at hand, perhaps why it had decided to console this (relatively) tiny human. Was it thinking of him?

Rather, _how_ was it thinking of him?

Leon himself wasn’t entirely sure how to think of it, his thoughts and feelings no longer the black and white view he held when they had first encountered each other, now nebulous and confusing, and yet at the same time it somehow drew him in, wanting it to unravel before him.

Leon wished he had more time to think on it, but if this was the night he might die, he may as well throw all reservations out of the window.

Leon, against his better judgement, reached up towards its face, and kissed the Tyrant.

He could feel its whole body seemingly freeze in response, and Leon couldn’t help but be amused at its reaction, finally having a turn to surprise it for once.

Pulling away, he realized that its lips were surprisingly soft, even if he only gently touched him with his own.

Upon looking at the other, Leon saw that its face was completely blank, as if to process what just happened.

Eventually it blinked, eyes darting down to Leon.

He watched as a gloved hand touched its mouth, soon moving to gently thumb his own lips.

“Did you... want me to do that again?”

It nodded, and Leon obliged, rising once again to its face, and kissing it once more.

He lingered this time, mouth making contact with its lower lip, and he could hear it slowly inhale in response. It then exhaled, opening its own mouth to release the lungful of air it took in, the breath surprisingly warm against Leon’s cheek.

He hummed in response.

“So was _this_ the ‘someone’ you left behind, Leon?”

Oh shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ',:3c


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyyyy..... You know that tag I put in there? This is the chapter with the implied child death. It's the RE2 remake gun shop scene. I made it a lot sadder.
> 
> It's close to the beginning of the chapter, so if you wanna skip past it, you can start at the words "Don't move." and you'll be cool.
> 
> Thanks so much for your patience! This chapter was, by far, the most difficult for me to write, mainly because I had finals and then got sick ;~; But I'm doing better now!
> 
> Enjoy!

White eyes darted towards the door, revealing another human wearing a tan coat. It stood up, prepared for something to happen, but its balance was still out of whack, wobbling slightly as it squared its shoulders. It leaned forward slightly, in an attempt to look fearsome and scare off the new human.

It saw them pull out a gun, smaller than Leon’s own, but it still felt something clench in its chest at the sight of it.

“Ada  _ wait--! _ ”

It was Leon, pushing their arm out of the way in time for a shot to go off. It was barely enough for it to raise its arms above its face, the bullet doing nothing to the arms protecting itself, the material that wrapped its body far too strong against the small arms that the other human was carrying.

“Don’t you know what this is?” The other-- Ada-- demanded from Leon. “I just had to save your ass from one of these earlier, and now you’re suddenly shacking up with another one? _ What if it kills you?” _

“I  _ know _ .” Leon replied with gritted teeth. “But-- this one is different. I don’t really know why or how, but something happened to Trenchy--”

_ “Trenchy?” _ Ada scoffed.

Leon exhaled in exasperation. “ _ Yes. _ Will you let me talk?”

“There’s not much room to talk when one of these things killed Ben. Who knows if it’ll kill us as well?”

_ “I do, _ and we wouldn’t be having this conversation if it didn’t want us to be in here anyways!”

That was true but... it and Leon were in the middle of something.

Ada seemed to go silent at Leon’s response. They turned away, about to leave.

“Whatever. When you’re done playing around I’ll be at the garage.” Beat.  _ “Don’t take too long.” _

The door was firmly shut, leaving Leon and it behind.

It could see that he was trembling. More importantly, was he okay? What exactly did that other human, Ada, mean when they said something about it killing? What did that other human know that Leon didn’t?

Leon turned towards it, and it could see that his brows were knitted, his eyes an unrecognizable emotion. It felt like shrinking back in response.

Leon took a deep breath, and approached it, his expression becoming more neutral as he closed the space between them.

It could feel the thuddings in its chest become more rapid as he approached, tensing.

Leon simply stood by it, and sighed. “What am I gonna do...”

It stared, wanting so badly that it could talk to him. That it had a voice that he could understand. The signs and motions it was doing earlier didn’t seem to be enough, so maybe...

Slowly, gently, it put its hand on top of Leon’s head. It could feel him tense slightly under the touch, perhaps because he didn’t expect it to touch him like that.

They sat like this for a while. Leon finally turned away, the hand sliding off of his head, mussing his hair slightly. It simply let its hand return limply to its side.

“C’mon. Might as well come with me anyways. Ada’ll just have to deal with it.” Leon turned to face it. “Do you think you can walk without help?”

A pause, it wasn’t sure.

Finally, it nodded. It didn’t feel as disoriented as it did before, a good sign of its inhumanly fast recovery.

Leon seemed to step back, giving it room to step forward. It did so, making its way to the door leaving the room, leaning through the smallish frame, and holding the door ajar for Leon to walk though.

“Thank you.” He said, passing under its arm and into the dim hallway. “Now-- back to business.”

\--

Leon felt...  _ troubled. _

He had defended the Tyrant from Ada, the only other human he had been able to encounter and get help from. There was something... a bit wrong with that.

No, no. There was  _ a lot  _ fucking wrong with that.

Then there was the way he had... touched it. How it touched him back. Something squeezed in his chest at these thoughts, something all-too-familiar for him whenever he had feelings for someone. But earlier he had been lost in the moment, his emotions clouding his judgement.

“It’s following you just like a puppy.” He was dragged away from his thoughts at the sound of Ada’s voice, lightly reverberating off the concrete walls of the garage. “If it wasn’t an eight-foot tall monster, I’d say it was cute.”

Leon could feel his ears burn at the comment.

“I have the pass,” He tried to change the subject, pulling the plastic card out of his pocket. “Are we ready or--?”

Ada was pointing at something behind him. He turned to see what it was, realizing that Trenchy now was staring at the SWAT van, the flames long-extinguished, and the body of the other Tyrant was unseeable under the debris. He assumed that it had been killed in the initial explosion, and whatever was left of its body was burnt to a crisp.

He hoped.

Leon watched as the Tyrant gestured something towards the rubble, it looked as if it had shaped its hands into a ‘Y,’ drawing the hands from its shoulders and down its chest, opening its hands flat, with the open palm of the left hand facing the floor, while the right hand’s palm was facing the ceiling. It then turned the hands over to the left once, in a seemingly angry motion.

Leon approached it, reaching a hand to its elbow in place of a shoulder. “C’mon.”

After a moment, it nodded, following him to the gate as Leon fed the pass into the machine.

“Do you know what it just said?” Ada hissed, ducking beneath the gate as it was a third of the way up.

“No... do you?” He followed her as the gate was halfway up, with trenchy following him once the gate was fully raised. It’s footfalls seemed to be less loud than before, he noticed.

“... Yes.” Ada replied slowly, not even bothered by the rain outside. 

Leon had to stop himself from getting excited, finally able to understand what it could be saying to him. “Okay then... back there, what did it say?”

_ “Stay dead.” _ Ada replied tersely.

Leon wished he could respond to her words, but he guessed that it was directed at the Tyrant that had hurt both himself and Trenchy so... the fucker got what it deserved.

“I hope it does.” Leon finally replied, perhaps with a bit too much venom in his remark. “Otherwise I’ll be really pissed if it comes back.”

“I don’t think you’ll be the only one.” Ada replied, stopping at the end of the road, before them lay an expanse of cut earth, at least a whole city block was missing between where she stood and where the other end of the road began once again.    


“Road’s out. Let’s try the gun shop over there.”

Leon’s attention was drawn towards where Ada was pointing, the red neon sign reading  _ GUN SHOP KENDO.  _ He couldn’t believe that it was still lit, even in the middle of this apocalypse. 

Both he and Trenchy waited while Ada fiddled with the lock of the storefront. Leon wondered what it might have been thinking, the whole situation feeling off and... just plain  _ weird _ . But a lot of terrible shit had been happening to him tonight and he might as well try to keep ahold of all the help he could get.

Even if it came in the form of a mysterious FBI agent that literally came out of the shadows. Or in the form of an eight-foot-tall monster that couldn’t speak.

Even if said monster--?

“Got it.” Said Ada, swinging one of the double doors open, revealing a totally trashed interior. Shelves and other forms of usual store furniture were tossed into a sort of makeshift wall. “What a mess.”

Understatement of the year, Leon thought to himself, taking his time to look through the store, grabbing whatever may have been overlooked or left behind. His eyes idly picked through the rubble, eventually coming across an extended barrel for the shotgun he was carrying.

Feeling extremely good about the find, Leon quickly attached it to the end of gun, twisting the barrel into place. Sure, it was going to take up twice as much space as it was before, but the added range and accuracy was so,  _ so _ worth it.

A little bit more scavenging was done, Ada seemingly distracted by whatever may have been kept behind the counter. Leon noticed that Trenchy was keeping to the back, still standing by the storefront. 

He wondered if it was keeping watch for him and Ada, or doing something else. In the dark he couldn’t tell which way it was facing.

Which didn’t matter once Leon made it to the back of the shop.

“Don’t move.”

Out of the corner of his periphery, Leon could see a man in a yellow plaid shirt, and could also see that he had a shotgun aimed right at him.

Leon slowly raised his arms in response. “I’m just passing through-- I’m gonna have you ask that you please l-lower the weapon.”

The other man stepped forward. “I  _ said: _ don’t move. You are going to turn around and go back out _exactly_ the way you came.”

Leon could feel fear grip at his chest. Where was Ada?  _ Where was Trenchy?? _

Behind the man, Leon could see a much, much smaller form. It was a child. Probably belonged to the man who held him at gunpoint. It was fairly obvious, even at this distance away from them, that there was something wrong.

“Sir, I think your child needs help.”

The man cocked the gun. “Don’t tell me how to deal with  _ my _ daughter.”

“Drop it.” Ada revealed herself from the shadows, her own weapon drawn, but it wasn’t pointed at the plaid-wearing man.

It was at his daughter.

_ “No! _ Wait.” His grip and stance changed, pointing the end of the gun at Ada before he raised a hand, the action allowing Leon to draw out Matilda from his holster and point it at the other man.

“Step aside.” Ordered Ada. “We need to terminate her before she turns.”

The man sneered at her words. “Terminate, huh? That’s my  _ fucking _ daughter!” 

There was despair in his words, and Leon lowered his gun, motioning the other to do the same. “Ada... Let them be.”

Behind him, Leon could hear a faint stepping sound from the front of the gun shop, stopping soon afterwards. He didn’t dare turn his head and look to make sure if it was there, fearing that he would make the man in plaid hostile again.

Ada lowered her own gun in the meantime.

“Emma...” The man in plaid sounded like he was going to cry. “I thought I told you to stay put?”

“Daddy?” The girl’s-- Emma’s-- voice was small and raspy, she sounded afraid.

“Daddy’s here, Emmie. He’s right here. Right here, okay?”

The man turned away from Ada and Leon, completely ignoring them in favor of comforting his daughter. He knelt before her, completely wrapping her up in a tight hug, mumbling words of comfort.

“Those... those fuckin’ things outside... Look what they did to us.” He turned to the pair, the rain making it hard to tell if he was crying. His gaze going directly to Leon.

“You’re a cop, aren’t you? You’re supposed to know something-- So  _ how did this happen? HUH?!” _

Leon looked to Ada in an attempt to deflect the question from himself, and for a moment, he wished he could say something--  _ anything _ , to comfort this despairing man before him.

Ada simply stared, her expression unreadable.

“She was our sweet little angel.” 

A heavy silence fell onto everyone present.

“Mom...” Uttered Emma, her expression unreadable. Leon could only imagine what this small girl was thinking and feeling right now.

The man turned his attention back to his daughter. “Mommy... mommy’s sleeping, honey. And-- And I’m gonna put you to bed too, okay?”

Silently, he picked up his daughter, partially slinging her over his shoulder. She simply laid there limply as he walked away to the open door behind him.

“Just-- just  _ go. _ Give us some privacy.”

He said nothing else, shutting the door.

A minute later, a loud gunshot echoed through the alley. The sound made it feel like it was reverberating through Leon’s entire being.

He felt himself release a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in. He could feel his own warm tears mixing in with the cold rain.

Behind him, he could hear Trenchy coming out from the shop, its footsteps felt extremely quiet in comparison to the shot that rang out from behind the door. He felt its hand on his shoulder, but he moved away, stepping towards Ada.

“I understand that this is government business, but you  _ have _ to tell me what’s going on before I can help you out any more after this!” He could feel anger swell up in his chest, throat tight with emotion. “It’s one thing to keep secrets from me, but why _ him? _ He deserved to know more than  _ anyone _ else in this city!”

He didn’t realize until he finished what he said that he was practically screaming at the woman. He didn’t care, he was too god damn angry at her, at the whole situation that Raccoon City had been plunged into.

“I just... I just want to  _ help _ people...” He said softly.

And yet, Leon just felt so goddamn  _ helpless. _

Ada turned to face him, expression still unreadable. Leon only felt more angry at the sight of her. How could she stay so seemingly calm and unbothered at a time like this!?

“My mission,” She began, “Is to find out what happened my partner, John, and to take down Umbrella’s entire operation. We may not make it out.”

Leon was stunned into silence. Ada’s partner? Umbrella? That big pharmaceutical company that had its main headquarters here in Raccoon City?

_ That _ Umbrella?

Ada turned away from Leon and opened the gate behind her, walking to the backstreet, seemingly ignoring or not caring about the event that happened earlier.

Trenchy followed, and Leon trailed behind it.

But for the briefest moment, he saw something in its face.

Was it...  _ sad? _

\--

It... It had no idea what to make of the situation that had unfolded earlier.

There were new humans, one had a large gun pointed at Leon, and it felt an intense urge to go in, to knock that other human away and put itself between Leon and them.

Yet it still had stood there, frozen, when it saw that other, smaller, human behind the first one. 

Even from the great distance it was from Leon, from the front of the building, shadowed by the rubble and chaos that surrounded it, something was...  _ wrong _ with them. The strained breathing, the tone of its small voice as they spoke. It could only watch as Leon and Ada were able to diffuse the situation, something heavy falling in its chest as it could see the two humans disappear behind a metal door.

And then-- then there was the gunshot.

It could only imagine what had happened behind that door. That was all it could do.

That, and following Ada and Leon into the depths of Raccoon City. Following the two of them down some scaffolding and temporary placements, making a beeline for what looked like a large tunnel, cutting straight through the earth.

“You’ve heard of Umbrella, haven’t you?” It was Ada, breaking its train of thought.

“A little bit, yeah.” Leon replied. “Don’t they only make medicine, though?”

“Unfortunately, no. They’ve been secretly making bio-weapons, making the virus that turns people into monsters. Not quite like your friend there,” She nodded her head towards it. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that it’s affiliated with them.”

“So you still don’t trust it?”

“Absolutely not.”

They silently continued down a flight of stairs, their steps making a tinny sound as they walked. Its own steps were more slow, with a heavier clunking to it. Leon and Ada dropped down onto another platform, it waited a moment, following suit soon after. The action created a large clattering sound, causing it to seemingly echo in the hole they were in.

It watched as Leon and Ada entered the tunnel at the bottom, taking a moment for itself to look behind it, making sure that nothing was following them, before it followed them into the smallish entrance. The atmosphere soon turning into something of a wet, dank nature.

“Still-- that explains a lot of the horrible things I’ve seen tonight.” Leon finally replied, cutting away the silence.

“That still doesn’t explain why your ‘friend’ there is following you around.”

Now that it considered it, it wasn’t too sure either. Really, Leon was the only other living thing that it was able to recognize after it simply woke up. And there was... _earlier_ to consider as well.

Leon mumbled something in response. He sounded... flustered.

“You’ll have to save it for later.” Ada continued. The tunnel now making a gentle slope deeper under the city. “My intel suggested that Umbrella’s main base of operations is hidden in the city’s sewer system, that this tunnel will lead right into the heart of their operations. That’s where we’ll be able to find Annette Birkin, the creator of the virus that’s plaguing the city.”

“Wait a minute-- aren’t the sewers owned by the city? How could something as big as Umbrella build something like that without anyone noticing?”

“Welcome to corporate America. Umbrella’s been tugging the strings for years.”

The continued in silence like this, eventually Leon taking point, with it taking a more trailing position. It was thankful for the fact that whoever was working through this system had the sense to leave all the lights on, otherwise it would have been far too difficult to traverse.

The only sound that made its way through the tunnel were the wet steps between the three of them. The tunnel seemed to only go deeper and deeper, soon leveling off to a more even degree.

“So,” Started Leon as they continued walking through the corridor. “What exactly  _ does _ Umbrella do with these monsters? Sell them to the military? Someone else’s?”

“No, they sell the  _ viruses _ that make them. Put in the wrong hands and we get something like what happening in Raccoon City right now. It's why my partner was sent to investigate, and it’s why I was sent here to stop them.” As Ada finished speaking, a deep rumbling went through the corridor, the sound reverberating off the concrete and metal walls, bits of stone and metal to shook loose, clattering to the floor.

_ What was that? _

“What the hell was that? An earthquake?” Leon asked, seemingly voicing its question.

“I hope so.” Replied Ada. “You know, it’s not too late to turn back.”

It could hear Leon laugh in response. “Nah, you’re gonna have to be stuck with us whether you like it or not.”

_ Us. _

Something rancid entered its senses, and it knew immediately that they had finally entered the sewer system. It was certain that if it was able to, it would be gagging at the scent.

Soon enough they approached a smaller entryway. Leon and Ada were able to pass through easily enough, however it needed to side-shimmy its way in, its frame almost too large to fit through.

Another rumbling echoed through the tunnel, and even it could feel the vibrations in the ground. At the end of the hall, something large moved out of sight.

“What the fuck..?” Leon swore aloud, pulling out a gun and stopping dead in his tracks.

Whatever was on the other side of the bars roared, its movements loud and thunderous in the narrow hall.

“Stay sharp!” Ada approached Leon, standing right behind his right shoulder.

To the left was another small entryway, leading into an equally small room. It allowed the others to pass through before it, soon side-shimmying again, only part of the way through this time. If only the room wasn’t so small, otherwise it would have fully followed them inside.

It was getting  _ really _ tired of all these small spaces.

Hearing the creaking of a gate, it soon strode through the room, nearly bumping into Ada. It tensed at the sudden contact, its whole body going still in response.

Ada simply turned her head and looked at it. It couldn’t read the expression on her face, due to the piece of plastic that covered her eyes.

_ Sorry _ . It signed, making a tight circle with its chest.

“What’s the holdup?”

“Nothing, Leon.”  The woman turned, pushing the gate open to pass the threshold of the tiny room into the tunnel of whatever was traversing the sewers.

Here, in this much larger, wider tunnel, it felt... better. It was more open here, less cramped.

Leon seemed to be investigating the collapsed part of the tunnel to the left. Something tapped at its forearm, and its gaze turned down towards Ada.

_ Why are you here? _ She asked, her brows knitting together as she signed the question.

It tilted its head to the side, mildly surprised.  _ Why ask? _

_ You are monster-- _ Her gloved hands curled slightly on either side of her head, all the fingers closing into a fist as she pointed both her hands at it.  _ Killer, why help--? _

It didn’t recognize the shapes she made at the end, her fingers had curled into some interesting forms, and wondered what she might have said.

_ Repeat last. _ It asked, tilting its head towards the other.

She signed again, and frustration welled in its chest at its inability to know what Ada was saying. She then pointed to Leon, making the signs with her free hand.

It looked to the other human, then back to Ada, then down to its hand, slowly mimicking the sign.

_ Why help Leon? _ She asked again, her motions becoming laced with exasperation.

It stood for a moment, thinking. It... wasn’t all that sure. Maybe it was because Leon was the first person it found after it woke up. Or maybe it was because of the fact that Leon, despite their rough start, didn’t shoot it, or try to harm it at all.

However, something seemed to tug at the back of its mind at the last thought, as if there was something wrong in that internal statement. It pushed the thought aside, clenching and unclenching its hands before finally responding.

_ Why are you? _

The corner of Ada’s mouth seemed to twitch at its response.

“Yeah-- really looks like we’ll have to follow whatever the fuck that thing was from earlier.” Leon interjected, lightly jogging over to the two of them. He paused, noticing the tension between it and Ada. “Uh, did something happen?”

“Nothing. I was just chatting with our friend here.” She replied all too quickly. “Thought that I would at least better know who we’re gonna work with.”

_ Liar. _

Leon grinned a little in response. “Well, glad you’re starting to trust--”

_ "There’s no trust between us yet, Leon.” _ Ada cut off bitterly. “Just because I can converse with...  _ something _ like that, doesn’t mean that I like it or want to hang out with it.”

Its shoulders tensed at the way she had spoken, a wash of something hot and cold flowed through its being. It didn’t like that.

Leon looked a little saddened by her words, grin now gone from his features.

“Let’s get going. We’ve wasted enough time here.” Ada spun herself around, heels clacking against the old brick, the sound reverberating off the walls.

Leon breathed a sigh. “Fine.” Then followed the other into the hall, with it following close behind Leon, effectively being his large, menacing shadow in the dim of the corridor.

They walked in silence, the other end of the corridor completely decimated by whatever creature had crawled through her earlier, providing no further passage into the tunnel.

Thankfully, there was a small flight of stairs, featuring a landing and another flight of stairs descending further into the depths.

After descending the stairs, leading into a narrow, but tall, hall, the room seemed to shake again, forcing everyone in line to pause.

“Again..?” Leon exclaimed

“Like I said earlier: it’s not too late to go back.”

“And like I said earlier: you’re stuck with us, whether you like it or not.”

There was that word again.  _ Us. _

It... liked that. Being associated with Leon felt... nice.

It mulled over its thoughts, soon realizing that the concrete floor beneath them had turned into a metal catwalk. The soft, consistent humming of fans following soon after.

Then the catwalk just seemed to end. A splash and the sounds of disgust were made as Ada had approached the end. It practically hovered over her as she crouched down at the edge.

“Are you  _ sure _ this is the right way?” It was Leon. Why did he jump down?

“Unfortunately.”

Whatever Ada had next to say was interrupted by a large, hollow boom. It watched as Leon looked behind himself, then back up to the two above him.

“Wait there.”

Again, another boom rang out, deep and hollow, and much,  _ much _ closer than the one from a moment ago. Only to be followed by the splashing of something huge, and an ear-shattering roar.

_ “Jesus Christ!” _

_ “Leon--! _ Get out of there!” Ada stood, turning on her heel, only to be stopped by it standing in the way. “Hey--! We gotta move and help Leon!”

Help. 

But how?

Ada seemed to growl. “If you want to help him stay alive, then you gotta get out of the way and follow me!”

Its response was to turn to the side, allowing the smaller woman to pass it on the catwalk, making a brisk pace for where they just came from. It followed, taking the longest strides it could without out-pacing Ada.

It had to help him.  _ It had to help Leon. _

\--

“Chew on  _ THAT _ you overgrown son of a  _ bitch!” _

Leon had hit a new low for the night. No-- scratch that-- a new low for his  _ whole life. _

It was one thing for him to wade through the refuse of the city, with god-knows-what might have been swimming around down there-- one of which being a huge, fucked up  _ fucking ALLIGATOR _ .

He sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, trying to avoid the stench of this place as best he could. He counted his lucky stars for that creature wrapping its jaws around a gas line, and in a spur of mad genius, Leon just shot the pipe, causing the creature’s upper jaw and head to explode, leaving behind nothing but a gorey lower mandible in its place.

_ God _ it felt good to say something as cheesy as that. Too bad no one was around to hear his wit.

His body was still shaking from the adrenaline, but he didn’t have time to calm himself, he needed to figure out a way to get the  _ fuck _ outta here.

The area he was in was decently square, the ceiling vaulted so high he couldn’t see it in the dim. It wouldn’t surprise him if it turned out that this was something akin to a filtering system. Keeping the larger bits of trash out of the rest of the water that surrounded him.

Everything else that surrounded him was... well,  _ garbage, _ for lack of a better, more eloquent word. There was trashed cardboard and other paper waste, some leaves and other plant matter here and there.

Leon was silently thankful that there didn’t seem to be anything metal or sharp in the immediate area, he still only wore his civvie shoes, and they didn’t exactly provide a whole lot of protection from much of anything. 

At least he wasn’t wearing his favorite pair, he was  _ definitely _ tossing these as soon as he left.

If he ever did leave.

_ No, don’t think that. _ He assured himself, shaking his head a little of the thought.  _ I’ve made it this far, I can manage a lot worse. _

But there was still the problem at hand: he was stuck. He had no real clue of how to deal with escaping here, but he dug his flashlight out of his pocket, pressing the switch--

... Only for it not to turn on.

_ “Great.” _ He exhaled bitterly.

Not only was he stuck, but he was stuck with no good way to search his surroundings.

Then-- a distant, rhythmic clicking and thumping sound entered his senses. They were quick, hurried, even, and the sound seemed to increase in volume until--

“Who’s there?”

“It’s your friend and I, Leon.” Ada replied, a rattling sound echoing in the space as a metal ladder unfolded into the water. “Hurry-- get up!”

“Alright!” He replied, relieved and happy to see-- well, hear-- Ada again.

As Leon approached the top of the ladder, a large hand gripped his forearm, lifting the man up and above the catwalk, soon brought into a firm embrace, his face pressed against a rubbery material.

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m glad to see you too, Trenchy.”

It hugged him a little tighter at his words, and he couldn’t help but embrace it back.

Ada cleared her throat. “If you two are done schmoozing about, we should get going. The lab entrance isn’t much farther.”

“Right...” Leon replied, feeling Trenchy’s grip on him loosen. He felt that his face was warm, and hoped that he wasn’t showing any redness.

“But-- hang on.” Ada turned towards him. “You said that the virus turned  _ people _ into monsters, not reptiles.”

“Fair point.” She replied, turning back around and walking once again. “I’m just glad you made it through all of that unscathed.”

He was glad too, and followed Ada down the corridor, the hall taking on a much more square, modernish look. Nearing the end of the hall, Leon was actually surprised to find an elevator here, and it seemed to work. 

Ada entered first, Leon following, and then Trenchy entered after. Leon pulled the gate closed, and pressed the button to go down.

But the elevator didn’t move.

“Is there no power or--?”

“We may have reached the maximum capacity.” Ada cut in, nodding her head towards Trenchy. “It might need to wait its turn to go down after us.”

Leon frowned a little in thought, pulling the gate open. He didn’t like the prospect, and he wasn’t sure how many levels down this elevator would go, but considering that there were only two buttons for the number of floors it could traverse, it may have been best to,  _ temporarily _ , leave his companion behind.

As he contemplated all of this, Trenchy had already exited the cabin.

“Can you... operate this?” He asked. “It’s a bit of an older elevator so...”

It nodded curtly.

Leon took a deep, nervous breath. “Okay. I’ll try to send it back up to you. If not then... you could jump down?”

“Leon.”

He tensed. “Sorry, right.” Pulling the gate shut once again. His gaze flicked up to the taller Tyrant, his eyes meeting white ones. “I’ll see you soon.”

The elevator then finally made a move, and Leon could feel his stomach float for a moment as the car made its descent even further down.

“Jeez... how deep are we going?”

“Can’t really say.” Ada crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. “But I know for sure that the lab is massive, and the path to it is like a maze.”

Pause.

“But now that we’re away from that  _ thing _ ... Why in the hell are you even with it?”

Leon felt like he was suddenly put on a spotlight. After a long, long moment of deliberation, he sighed.

“Ben didn’t only have that recorder with him.” He started, not even making an attempt to look at Ada’s face. “There was a note. Something about this thing called a ‘Tyrant,’ saying that it was Umbrella’s newest, most well-kept secret.”

He took in a deep breath, carefully choosing his next words. “It’s a weapon, I know this. But before I found that note, something... really weird happened. I don’t know if I can begin to explain it.”

“Then start.” 

Leon curled his hands into fists, feeling like he was being interrogated by the other. As if he was in trouble.

“I-- Back at the RPD, while I was trying to get a way to open Ben’s cell. We met inside and I shot at it, missed both times, and then Trenchy just sort of...  _ collapsed _ .” He motioned the fall. “I thought that I killed it somehow and left it there.” Beat. “But... afterwards we met up again, but it... it tried to  _ talk _ to me, Ada!”

Ada tilted her head at his words.

“Well-- not talk like you and I, but it talked with its  _ hands. _ Can you even guess how fucking  _ excited _ I was when you said you could understand it? Fuck-- I have so many questions I want to ask and--”

“Leon.” 

“Sorry. I’m getting off track again.”

The elevator stuttered a moment, indicating that it was done transporting the two of them. Leon approached the gate, pulling it open once more.

“Its... Its not a weapon, Ada.” He started, grip still firm against the edge of the gate. “I think... I think its a person. I think its... alive.”

“Is that what you thought while shacking up with it earlier?”

Leon’s face burned.

“Well?”

“No... no comment.” He replied finally, passing through the opening into what looked to be a small room. To the left was a gated door, to his right, he was able to see a half-empty box of handgun bullets discarded on the floor.

It looked like a makeshift break room, hardhats strewn about on metal tables with wheels locked into place. Also scattered about were what looked like small drums for carrying liquids inside it. Just beyond the steel gate was a large pipe bent in a right degree angle, accented with other smaller pipes and valve handles. Leon could hear something wet flowing through the largest pipe, a steady reminder of where he and Ada were at.

As he inspected the room for anything else left behind, the elevator started up again, the gate left ajar as it ascended to take on the other passenger that they had to leave behind.

“I guess its smarter than it looks after all.” Ada commented. She faced Leon. “We shoudn’t be much farther from the lab, let’s go.”

Leon took point, approaching the solid blue door and opening it slowly.

A low, feminine voice rang out just beyond.

“Definitely William's handiwork...”

The owner of the voice was an older woman, perhaps in her late 30’s to early 40’s wearing a white coat. Pale blond hair was tied into a side ponytail. Next to her was an eviscerated corpse.

Leon pushed the door open fully, drawing his handgun out, keeping it pointed low to the ground. “Ma’am I’m gonna need to request that you identify yourself.”

The woman looked up at Leon, her expression one of annoyance, as if he had disturbed her from a good book.

Ada drew her own gun, the safety clicking off and pointed right at the woman. “Annette Birkin.”

This is who they were looking for? Leon asked to himself. 

“There’s not much time...” Annette muttered to herself. “Need to dispose of it soon.”

Ada stepped closer. “Annette Birkin, you are under arrest for bio-terrorism against Raccoon city.”

By this point Annette at stood to her full height, finally giving some semblance of acknowledgement to Leon and Ada. She scoffed at them. “Do you really think that it was me who released the virus into the city?”

“I’m not gonna say it again.” Ada warned. “You’ll have to answer for your crimes against these people.”

“Oh yeah?”

In a matter of moments, the flick of a lighter caught Leon’s attention, and before anything could be done, the older woman tossed a zippo lighter onto the corpse, and it instantly caught aflame.

Having been distracted by the immolation of the corpse, Annette took the opportunity to flee.

“Stop!” Ada ordered, chasing after the other woman, following her down briefly until the sound of gunfire filled the hall they were in.

“Shit--! Ada!”

He dived into the other, grabbing her shoulders and shielding his wider frame over her own, and Leon felt the hot, stinging pain in his shoulder almost instantly, shouting in pain. Everything seemed to blur out of focus for him after that. 

_ Jesus, _ he never thought that it would hurt so fucking much. 

He could hear more gunshots, and the slow rumbling of something heavy, he wished he could look and see, but every move that he made only made the pain worse, spreading through his body like it was on fire. He could see his vision distorting, not unlike the migraines he would get as a child, so painful that it would almost blind him.

More shouting. Things were starting to feel more and more distant. If only he could get up and see what was happening.

He felt a hand grasp his face, much smaller than the one he had gotten used to feeling. “Leon...”

“Sh... shit... Ada...” He could feel his whole body trembling, unsure if it was from shock or the fact that he took a bullet for her. “Go... go after her. I’ll-- I’ll catch up...  _ nrgh--” _

He felt his body go limp, and his consciousness soon became engulfed in blackness, lulled into that dark with nothing but pain to accompany him.


End file.
